Is Open RAN Dead?
Is Open RAN dead? Mavenir's exit & AT&T's Ericsson deal raise doubts. But Nokia claims full commitment to Open RAN & Cloud RAN. Explore the future of 5G & vendor diversity.
"ChipPub" Publication: 20% Discount Offer Link.
Mavenir was previously hailed as the leader of the Open RAN movement. But this American software developer seems poised for a final farewell in the near future. Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli warned earlier this month that without the support of "brownfield" operators, Open RAN will die out, and 5G outside of China will fall into the monopoly of the two Nordic giants, Ericsson and Nokia.
The company itself has already exited the radio manufacturing space. Others argue that AT&T's Ericsson-led Open RAN is fake and has nailed the real Open RAN into a coffin, burying it alongside WiMax, TD-SCDMA, and other fleeting telecom technology concepts. But a mobile executive from another major Nordic supplier hears murmurs of unrest from within and believes it's too early to draw conclusions.
"No, Open RAN is not dead at all," said Tommi Uitto, President of Nokia's Mobile Networks business group, at a press conference held earlier this month at the company's futuristic new R&D campus in Oulu, Finland. "I'd say we're fully committed to Open RAN. We're fully committed to Cloud RAN. It's not just Ericsson and Nokia."